Party Pages: the Picasso Gala played host to Kim Cattrall, an Eaton, some Jackmans and a Weston

The AGO celebrated its upcoming Picasso exhibit, featuring more than 150 pieces from the Musée National Picasso in Paris, with a $1,500-a-ticket gala ball (truly the best way to toast anything) in Baillie Court last Thursday.The reception area in Walker Court was decked out like an extravagant French salon, with purple hydrangeas and gaslight posts leading the way to bright yellow and green couches and a striking blue floor (presumably inspired by Picasso, but it was also a handy way to avoid any red wine stains on the tile). Guests like society types Cleophee Eaton, Trinity and Victoria Jackman, Ivan Fecan, Ben and Jessica Mulroney and Loretta Rogers, Holt Renfrew head honcho Mark Derbyshire, director Norman Jewison (and wife Lynne St. David) and Gluskin Sheff and Associates’ co-founder Ira Gluskin mingled amidst posing nude models and a three-piece jazz band. The biggest celeb of the night was Kim Cattrall (who recently starred in the Toronto stage production Private Lives), and since she was the biggest star, people wanted to take her picture—a lot (seriously, kudos to you Cattrall for maintaining that smile all night). The photographer joked with Cattrall “smile, it’s in your contract” as she posed with countless guests. Not one to refuse food, we spotted Cattrall digging into the salt cod cakes and shrimp skewers and even partaking in the lemonade cocktails on hand (some people feign being dainty at these things and presumably go home and shame eat a bag of potato chips, but not her). Sadly though, we didn’t hear even one Samantha-esque utterance about the nudity in the room—would one “there’s more naked people here than at my last book club meeting” have been so difficult?